English Camp
I'm sorry that it's taken so long but I've finally got a moment to give my report on Yamato Nishi English Camp 2006.
On Saturday the 28th, I got up at 0530 to grab a bite and a shower before meeting up with the rest of the Jiyugaoka residents that were helping out at the camp. I was really dragging because I had stayed up really late the previous night but nevertheless, both Josh(my room mate) and I made it to the meeting place on time @ 0600. Unfortunately we were the only ones who did. The rest of the group had done their typical Friday night drinking and ended up being quite a bit late. Other than the annoyance factor, it didn't really matter though.
We all made it to Shinjuku to meet the rest of the TUJers by the appointed time and from there we all made it on to the right trains to make it too Sagamiono. It really was amazing how every single one of the 28 TUJ students made it on time. I was impressed. Upon arriving in Sagamiono we were hustled to our busses for the five hour to the retreat center in Gunma prefecture. I blogged about that ride during the drive.
The camp was held at Tokai University's Kogen Seminar Center in Gunma Prefecture amidst a beautiful fall, mountain landscape. We arrived at 1330, a little bit later than projected. We dropped our bags in our room, sat through a quick orientation and were at our stations ready to teach within an hour of arriving.
Throughout the weekend, each of the foreign students, most of us from Temple, was assigned to a station through which groups of students would rotate. The first day, we helped the student with introductions and then listened to a short presentation about their school. We coached them on their pronunciation, posture and other things to make their English presentation sound better. I thought that these exercise were a bit dry. What made them a lot more enjoyable was chatting with the students between sessions.
After a couple of workshops it was time for dinner. We all ate with our groups. By the time I met up with my group and made it through the line, the food was cold and between that and it's unfamiliarity I didn't really like it. The conversation with the Japanese students on the other hand was very enjoyable.
That night after dinner, we had several hours of free time before the students had to go to bed. During this time we got to hang out with them, chatting, playing games and taking pictures.
I should pause here and clarify that when I say, "take pictures" it was like being a full on celebrity. I got mobbed by literally dozens of girls wanting to take pictures with me. Over the week end almost every spare moment was an excuse for students to whip out their cameras and get pictures taken with an American. I probably appear in a couple hundred pictures, each one featuring me with the same cheezy grin. I felt a bit self conscious but seeing the excitement all the kids showed at the chance to take a photo with me I couldn't turn them down. It was crazy.
I have never been so popular in my life as when hanging out with those Japanese highschoolers.
One of the American English teachers at Yamato Nishi made my time at the camp a lot more challenging. The complication was innoncent enough, he has the same name as me. This meant that every single one of Yamato Nishi's 240 freshmen students permanently memorized my name the first time they heard it... and they expected reciprocity. Through out the camp I had students greeting me by name and then asking if I remembered their name. Can you believe that I forgot one or two of them? Okay, so I really forgot pretty much all of them. I ended up memorizing a little more than a dozen names out of all the students. At least the few that I remembered were wildly thrilled when I remembered them. I definitely need to build up my name recall skills.
The second day we did workshops for most of the day. This time we helped students work on distinguishing between English sounds that are indistinct in Japanese for example, 'l' and 'r', played word games and helped the kids work on speeches for a contest that was held on Monday morning.
Once again, after dinner we got to hang out with the students. It was a blast. Their excitement with us as foreigners, the challenge of bi-lingual conversation and the many friendly, fun kids all combined to make for a great time. After the students went to bed, the Americans stayed up chatting until early in the morning.
Despite our lack of sleep, we managed to get up and conduct the speech contest. One of my friends, a girl that I chatted with both evenings, won first place. I had helped her work on her speech and so needless to say I was super happy.
After the contest, we packed the few things that we hadn't put away the night before and loaded on to the busses for the return journey. On the bus the kids did karoke. It was excruciating. What with the terrible Japanese 80's music, the off-key guys and the feedback through the sound system the din was pretty awful. A fact which hardly prevented it from being fun.
All in all the trip was the funnest thing I've done since coming to Japan. I would highly recommend the experience to anyone who has a chance to do something similar. I know that I'm going to do my best to help out at English Camp next year.
NOTE: Pictures courtesy of the much appreciated Kimiko, who actually has a camera.
On Saturday the 28th, I got up at 0530 to grab a bite and a shower before meeting up with the rest of the Jiyugaoka residents that were helping out at the camp. I was really dragging because I had stayed up really late the previous night but nevertheless, both Josh(my room mate) and I made it to the meeting place on time @ 0600. Unfortunately we were the only ones who did. The rest of the group had done their typical Friday night drinking and ended up being quite a bit late. Other than the annoyance factor, it didn't really matter though.
We all made it to Shinjuku to meet the rest of the TUJers by the appointed time and from there we all made it on to the right trains to make it too Sagamiono. It really was amazing how every single one of the 28 TUJ students made it on time. I was impressed. Upon arriving in Sagamiono we were hustled to our busses for the five hour to the retreat center in Gunma prefecture. I blogged about that ride during the drive.
The camp was held at Tokai University's Kogen Seminar Center in Gunma Prefecture amidst a beautiful fall, mountain landscape. We arrived at 1330, a little bit later than projected. We dropped our bags in our room, sat through a quick orientation and were at our stations ready to teach within an hour of arriving.Throughout the weekend, each of the foreign students, most of us from Temple, was assigned to a station through which groups of students would rotate. The first day, we helped the student with introductions and then listened to a short presentation about their school. We coached them on their pronunciation, posture and other things to make their English presentation sound better. I thought that these exercise were a bit dry. What made them a lot more enjoyable was chatting with the students between sessions.
After a couple of workshops it was time for dinner. We all ate with our groups. By the time I met up with my group and made it through the line, the food was cold and between that and it's unfamiliarity I didn't really like it. The conversation with the Japanese students on the other hand was very enjoyable.
That night after dinner, we had several hours of free time before the students had to go to bed. During this time we got to hang out with them, chatting, playing games and taking pictures.
I should pause here and clarify that when I say, "take pictures" it was like being a full on celebrity. I got mobbed by literally dozens of girls wanting to take pictures with me. Over the week end almost every spare moment was an excuse for students to whip out their cameras and get pictures taken with an American. I probably appear in a couple hundred pictures, each one featuring me with the same cheezy grin. I felt a bit self conscious but seeing the excitement all the kids showed at the chance to take a photo with me I couldn't turn them down. It was crazy.I have never been so popular in my life as when hanging out with those Japanese highschoolers.
One of the American English teachers at Yamato Nishi made my time at the camp a lot more challenging. The complication was innoncent enough, he has the same name as me. This meant that every single one of Yamato Nishi's 240 freshmen students permanently memorized my name the first time they heard it... and they expected reciprocity. Through out the camp I had students greeting me by name and then asking if I remembered their name. Can you believe that I forgot one or two of them? Okay, so I really forgot pretty much all of them. I ended up memorizing a little more than a dozen names out of all the students. At least the few that I remembered were wildly thrilled when I remembered them. I definitely need to build up my name recall skills.
The second day we did workshops for most of the day. This time we helped students work on distinguishing between English sounds that are indistinct in Japanese for example, 'l' and 'r', played word games and helped the kids work on speeches for a contest that was held on Monday morning.
Once again, after dinner we got to hang out with the students. It was a blast. Their excitement with us as foreigners, the challenge of bi-lingual conversation and the many friendly, fun kids all combined to make for a great time. After the students went to bed, the Americans stayed up chatting until early in the morning.
Despite our lack of sleep, we managed to get up and conduct the speech contest. One of my friends, a girl that I chatted with both evenings, won first place. I had helped her work on her speech and so needless to say I was super happy.
After the contest, we packed the few things that we hadn't put away the night before and loaded on to the busses for the return journey. On the bus the kids did karoke. It was excruciating. What with the terrible Japanese 80's music, the off-key guys and the feedback through the sound system the din was pretty awful. A fact which hardly prevented it from being fun.
All in all the trip was the funnest thing I've done since coming to Japan. I would highly recommend the experience to anyone who has a chance to do something similar. I know that I'm going to do my best to help out at English Camp next year.
NOTE: Pictures courtesy of the much appreciated Kimiko, who actually has a camera.
7 Comments:
Nice...that's the kind of detail I wanted to include in my update but since it was already really long, I decided to spare my readers. Also, the first picture doesn't show up fyi.
K
28 Days!!! :)
Looks like the ladys love you over there... lucky dog!
sounds like fun!
The pic of the surrounding looks really tranquil. As for being a celeb, you should start charging people:o)
Everyone needs a few moments of popularity in life. It gives you an opportunity to decide if it is really all it's cracked up to be.
I don't mind attention, but I like my privacy more.
Ummm.... do you go by army time? Who does that- other than people in the army?
I can totally relate to being a "celebrity". It was like that for us when we went to Mexico.
Don't get a big head though:)
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